What if the French Mistake
by Katy M VT
Summary: What if only Sam went to the alternate universe and Jared came back.  Sequel to What if Hollywood Babylon. Chapter 2 of 2 up.
1. Chapter 1

What if only Sam went to the alternate universe and Jared came back from it?

"Sam, Bobby and I are going to go on a supply run," Dean said.

"In this weather?" Sam asked. "What's so important?"

"We're out of hunter's helper," Dean smirked, as he indicated the empty whiskey bottle.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Why don't you just go? It's not really a two man job is it?"

Dean frowned. "Bobby still feels uncomfortable being alone around you," Dean admitted.

"Fine," Sam said. How could he argue with that? He had tried to kill him.

"Sam," Dean said. "Don't get all pouty."

"Shut up."

This time Dean rolled his eyes and headed out to the truck where Bobby was waiting for him. He had to do something about this soon. If it kept up, he and Sam would have to start avoiding Bobby's place and it was really the closest thing he had to a home.

SSS

Sam was researching into the mother of all monsters when he sensed a presence and looked up. "Who are you?" he asked.

"You don't recognize me, Sam? I'm hurt. My name's Balthazzar."

Sam nodded. Dean had told him about the rogue angel and his last encounter with Castiel. "What do you want?"

"Well, Raphael has put out a hit on all of Castiel's friends and anyone's who's ever helped him including you and Dean, and more importantly me," Balthazzar said as he started rummaging drawers and cabinets getting together everything he needed to send the boys out of harm's way with the key. "Where's Dean?" he asked as he suddenly realized there was one missing piece to his plan.

"Out. What are you doing?"

"I have to send you away to keep you safe, along with this," he said, handing Sam a key.

"Why should I trust you?" Sam asked. He didn't remember him at all, but Dean had said that he had stolen weapons from Heaven. That didn't sound like someone trustworthy.

"It doesn't matter if you do or not. You're still going," Balthazzar answered as he painted something on the window.

Suddenly another angel appeared. Sam didn't know this guy either and wasn't sure if they had never met or if he just didn't remember him. "Who are you?"

"Go," Balthazzar demanded and put his hand out and Sam went out the window.

SSS

Sam looked around him. There were cameras and men and he was inside. Dean was beside him. How did he get there?

"Great job guys," one of the men said.

"What's going on?" Sam whispered to Dean.

"What do you mean?"

Sam followed him as he walked over to the mirrors. "Jared come with me," a woman said and pulled him away.

Jared? He suddenly realized what was going on. Or at least part of it. He had remembered when they were working that haunted movie set and Dean had switched places with an actor in an alternate universe. His name was Jensen and he had told Sam that his counterpart's name was Jared.

"So, you lost your soul and got it back. What's next for Sam Winchester?"

"Um," Sam said. "I have to go," and he ran off with everyone looking at him like he's crazy

SSS

Jared looked around. He had jumped out of the window, so why was he inside? And this wasn't the set. This was an actual house. "Sebastian? What's going on?"

"Virgil disappeared when I sent Sam to the other world. Now, I'll be going as well." With that he disappeared.

"This has to be some kind of practical joke," Jared said to himself, looking around, trying to figure out how they had done it. Then the door opened.

"Hey, Sam," Dean said.

Jared rolled his eyes. They were really going to go all out with this. He remembered Jensen starting to pull something like this a few years ago until he'd realized it was stupid and just gave it up. This time, he had apparently got everybody into the act.

"I'm going home," he said. That was supposed to be their last take, so there was no reason not to.

"Home?" Dean asked. This was the closest thing they had to home besides the Impala.

"Yeah, Gen and I have an otter thing tonight."

"Gen?" Dean said and exchanged a glance with Bobby. He wasn't making any sense, but it didn't seem like he was possessed or anything.

When Sam opened the door and looked outside, he became really confused. That really wasn't set. That really was the outside and not the lot either. "Where are we?" he asked,

"We're at Bobby's. Are you OK, Sam?"

"Stop calling me Sam."

"Well, what should we call you, then?" Bobby asked.

"Jared."

"Jared? Oh no," Dean said, remembering his little trip to the "real" world. He had tried so hard the last few years not to think about the fact that he was a TV character. Now, it looked like Sam had switched places with his actor. But why and how?

"Who's Jared?" Bobby asked, seeing that Dean apparently knew something he didn't.

"A few years ago, we were working this case on a haunted movie set. They were using real enochian chants and somehow sent me to switch places with the actor who plays me. Our lives are apparently not real. Jared's the actor who plays Sam."

"What?" both Jared and Bobby said in disbelief.

Dean shrugged. "It's true. We have to figure out what made the switch this time. What's the episode you're shooting about?"

"Angels."

"Cas?"

"Balthazzar."

"Great."


	2. Chapter 2

"Jensen," Sam said when he caught up with him later.

"What's going on? I heard you freaked out during an interview and ran away?"

"Do you remember a few years ago, doing that episode of the haunted movie set?" Sam asked.

"You mean Hollywood Babylon?" Jensen asked, immediately on guard. That was when he had gone to fake world and was always afraid someone would find out and send him to a looney bin. It had been so long, though.

"I guess. Remember how you switched places with Dean?"

Jensen looked around nervously. "Let's go in my trailer."

Once they were inside, Sam said, "Well, remember?"

"How do you know about that?" Jensen asked.

"I'm Sam."

"What?"

"I'm Sam."

"I heard you. Are you serious? This isn't some kind of crazy joke is it?" Jensen asked.

"No. Balthazzar sent me here with this key to keep it safe."

"What is it?" Jensen asked.

"I don't know. Do you have the script?" Sam smiled thinking of how Jensen was always saying "It's in the script."

"Oh crap. That's a key to all the stolen weapons of Heaven."

"Really? Well, I think I need to go back."

"How did he send you over?"

"Some kind of spell and sidgil. I didn't see what he did."

Jensen sighed. "OK. Well, maybe we can research or something. My wife's out of town on a shoot. She's a model. We're having some work done on our house, so I've been staying with you-or Jared. We should go back to Jared's place and see what we can figure out."

"Sounds good."

Jensen led him to a car with a driver and they both got in the back seat.

"Home?" the driver asked.

"Yeah, thanks," Jensen answered.

"So, don't flip out when we get there," Jensen whispered to Sam.

"Why would I?" Sam asked nervously.

"Your wife might freak you out a little."

"Is she the elephant man?"

"No," Jensen smiled. "She's an actress and you're going to recognize her." Jensen was whispering so Cliff wouldn't hear, but if he told Sam who he was married to, he wasn't sure that the reaction wouldn't be noticeable. Hopefully Gen would be out when they got back.

They pulled up to a big house. "I live here?" Sam asked when the car had driven off."

"Yeah."

"Wow."

Jensen thought of all the holes Sam and Dean had probably lived in their childhood and all the seedy motels since the show started. "Yeah. Probably not what you're used to. Jared's wife played Ruby."

"Ruby?"

"Yes, but she's actually very sweet. She's not a demon."

"Yeah, I can understand the distinction. No different than if we were to exorcise a demon and if the host was miraculously still alive."

"Good, I was afraid you'd freak."

"Which one?" Sam asked.

"What?"

"Which Ruby?"

"The last one," Dean clarified.

"Hi, honey. How was work?" Gen asked as she came downstairs.

"Fine," Sam answered.

"You should get ready."

"Ready for what?" Sam asked.

"We have that otter adoption dinner," Gen reminded him.

"Actually, Gen, Jared had a stunt go a little wrong today and hit his head. He should probably stay home and get some rest," Jensen said, knowing that they had some serious research to do and he had never researched anything like this before.

"Do you need a doctor?" Gen asked concerned.

"No," Sam reassured her. "Just a little headache."

"They checked him out on set," Jensen supplied.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" Gen asked.

"No, go to the otter thing. Have fun," Sam said.

"OK, bye," Gen said and reached up to kiss him.

Sam was pleasantly surprised. She kissed way better than Ruby.

SSS

"Seems to me, we've got to figure out what Balthazzar did and redo it to switch them back," Bobby decided.

"But why would he switch them in the first place?" Dean wondered. Balthazzar wasn't Gabriel, he didn't just go around making tricks.

"To hide the key," Jared said.

"Well, that's cryptic," Dean replied.

"There's a key to all the weapons that he stole. He gave it to Sam and sent him to the other world."

"How do you know that?" Dean asked.

"It's in the script. Maybe Cas can help. He's in this episode."

"CAS!" Dean yelled.

Nothing happened.

"Ok, next idea," Bobby said.

"No idea," Jared said.

"I got nothing," Dean said.

"This is the kind of thing we could use Sam for," Bobby admitted. No matter what problems he had with Sam, he had to admit he was the best researcher and the most creative when coming up with solutions.

SSS

"This is weird," Sam said as he surfed the net.

"What?" Jensen asked.

"There appears to be no real magic here. And none of the Apocalyptic signs happened here."

"Well, yeah. That's all just on the show," Jensen pointed out.

"But I think that means that spells won't work here either," Sam said.

"Oh. I hadn't thought about that," Jensen admitted.

"Hey guys. I'm back," Gen called from the other room.

"Hey," Jensen said.

"Ready for bed?" she asked Sam.

"I guess," Sam answered.

"I need a minute with him first," Jensen said.

"Don't be long," Gen said as she headed to the bedroom.

"Dude, you can't sleep with her," Jensen said when she'd left.

"Why not?" Sam asked, confused. She wasn't a demon and she was hot.

"Because that's Jared's wife. She would be cheating on him," Jensen said. Jared was his best friend and he wasn't going to let some other guy do his wife.

"OK," Sam said and continued to just stay in the study. Hopefully, she would just fall asleep and there wouldn't be any problem.

SSS

Dean and Bobby were busy researching and Jared was sacked out on the couch. "Not much help is he?" Bobby groused.

"Not his fault," Dean said.

A fluttering of wings preceded Castiel waking Jared. "Good, you can probably help," he said.

"Yes, we no longer need the decoy," Castiel said.

"Decoy?" Dean asked.

"Yes, Balthazzar gave me the real key and gave Sam a fake key. Virgil, one of Raphael's soldiers, has assumed that Sam found it and has been trying to figure out the spell to get to the other world. I took the opportunity to move all the weapons to a safe place. Now, I have control of the weapons and my victory is all but assured."

"That's great. Can you send me back now?" Jared asked. None of this was real. He couldn't really be bothered to care.

"Of course," Castiel said and painted the sidgil on the window and said the spell and flung Jared out the window as Sam came in.

"Sam?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, it's me."

"Did you get to do any acting?" Dean asked, remembering how he had to do that stupid grave digging scene a bazillion times and how annoying he found the whole thing. Sam had even less patience than him when it came to stupid nonsense.

"No, they were just wrapping or whatever, when I got there," Sam said. "You'll never guess who Jared's married to, though."

"Lindsay Lohan?" Jensen asked.

"Nope. The actress who played Ruby."

"Ewww," Dean said.

Sam laughed.

"You know, Sam. I've been giving you a hard time the last few weeks and I realized while you were gone that I missed you," Bobby said.

"Yeah, I missed you guys, too," Sam replied.

"I just want you to know, I forgive you for trying to kill me. Dean was right. It wasn't you."

Sam sighed. He wasn't sure if he deserved to be forgiven, but at the same time, he was relieved.

SSS

Jensen watched as Sam went flying out of the window. Luckily it was warm out, so it was open. Jared flew in.

"Hey, you're back," Jensen said.

"Yeah. Why did you never tell me about your experience a few years ago?" Jared asked.

"You would have thought I was insane."

"Good point. Anything happen today that I need to worry about?" If Jared knew anything about Sam, it was that he had a penchant for getting into trouble.

"Nah. Gen went to her otter thing and she just got back a few minutes ago. We were just wrapping when the switch took place, so he really didn't have much contact with anyone but me."

"Good," Jared nodded. "Man, kind of sad to know they really exist. Their lives suck."

"Definitely."

The End


End file.
